Dental Students’ Educational Environment and Perceived Stress: The University of Malaya Experience

Background: An equitable and positive learning environment fosters deep self-directed learning in students and, consequently, good practice in their profession. Although demotivating weaknesses may lead to repeated day-to-day stress with a cascade of deleterious consequences at both personal and professional levels, a possible relationship between these parameters has not been reported. This study was undertaken to determine the relationship between students’ perceptions of their educational environment and their stress levels.
Methods: Sixty-one first year students at the Dental Faculty, University of Malaya, Malaysia participated. The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) was used to determine educational environment while self-rated perceived stress level was measured by the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS).
Results: Most students (62.39%) showed positive perceptions for the total and five domains of DREEM. The highest percentage was observed for “Students perception of learning” (64.04%) while the lowest was for “Students’ social self-perception” (60.32%). At the same time, 61% of students showed high perceived stress levels. However, this was not associated with their DREEM scores.
Conclusion: Although a positive perception of their educational environment was found, minor corrective measures need to be implemented. Furthermore, longitudinal studies on an annual basis would provide useful input for strategic planning purposes.

Keywords
Dental; students; educational measurement; psychological stress; Malaysia